Williams Lake City Council endorsed last week’s committee of the whole resolutions on managing legal cannabis.
Council endorsed Tuesday evening that retail cannabis sale facilities cannot be situated within 1 kilometer of another facility and that the zoning bylaw is amended to permit cannabis production in heavy industrial zones with distribution permitted in any zone that permits warehouse use limited to the North End Industrial Park and Airport lands.
Mayor Walt Cobb says that a bylaw now will be drafted.
“Now that we’ve given the direction to staff they will bring that bylaw and we will have an opportunity to look at it then we will go to the public,” he says.
“Because it’s a big enough issue in our community and I think we need to have some public input, we’ll probably have at least one open house.”
Council also endorsed excluding retail cannabis sales from the definition of retail, similar to beer and wine stores, excluding drive through and mobile cannabis retail, and excluding sales from retail locations within 500 meters of schools or daycares.
Councillor Scott Nelson made a motion that a letter be forwarded to the federal government asking that any/all covenants be removed to permit a cannabis production facility at the Williams Lake Regional Airport.
He says that significant movement is taking place behind the scenes with cannabis investors, and anticipates that there will be a public announcement in the next couple of weeks.